https://aliakbarmehta.com 2021-03-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Page Ali Akbar Mehta https://aliakbarmehta.com/curriculum-vitae/ 2021-03-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Page Curriculum vitae https://aliakbarmehta.com/portfolio-2021/ 2021-03-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Page Portfolio https://aliakbarmehta.com/404/ 2021-03-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Page 404 - Page not found https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/purgatory-edit-liberation-archives-for-the-cyborgs-of-now/ 2025-01-09T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects purgatory EDIT: Liberation Archives for the Cyborgs of Now **Purgatory EDIT: Liberation Archives for the Cyborgs of Now** premiers at Transmediale Studio from January 9 to February 2, 2025. It was installed as part of **[UnNatural Encounters](https://emare.eu/news-events/emap-group-show-unnatural-encounters-silent-green)**, on view from January 9 to 19, 2025, at silent green, and as part of the *transmediale festival 2025*, '**[near near but — far](https://transmediale.de/en/pressRelease/festival-2025)**', taking place from January 30 to February 2, 2025. <iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1064069580?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" width="1920" height="1080" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media" title="purgatory EDIT (short intro), 2025"></iframe> <br/> January 9, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-war-list-codex-2023/ 2023-06-02T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects WRE~ War List CODEX 2023 The War List CODEX, is an online open-access database published in 2023. It is a consolidation of the research conducted by the artist since 2014 – a searchable database of over 7500 'wars, battles, sacks, sieges, revolts, revolutions, bombings, insurgencies, protests' and other types of conflicts – ranging from 3500 BC to the present.  The **War List CODEX** – in its multiple iterations, as an archive, performance, publication, and now as an online searchable database – is a core component of WAR ROOM ECHO: Regarding the Pain of Other Cyborgs, envisioned as a hybrid museum, shapeshifting between an archaeological site, a war memorial, and a tomb. The title of the project refers to Susan Sontag’s seminal book – ‘Regarding the Pain of Others’, where she questions the validity of decontextualized representation of pain and suffering in ‘war photography’. <br/> Link to database **[here](https://warlistcodex.aliakbarmehta.com/)** June 2, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/pe-purgatory-edit-doomscroll-archive/ 2023-06-02T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects PE ~ purgatory EDIT: Doomscroll Archive **Purgatory EDIT: Doomscroll Archive** is an archive of moving images dealing with the representation of violence and conflict. It is sourced using archival war footage, movie and documentary clips, advertisements, newsreels, landscape panoramas, and home videos that depict violence in categorically different forms.  <iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/840610772?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" width="1280" height="720" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media" title="Purgatory EDIT: Archive, Data Wall, 2023"></iframe> The onsite installation and accompanying online open-access database together form an ongoing archive that critiques existing media representations and the glorification of violence and examines the power of hegemonic representation within visual and cinematic vocabularies. It questions what it means to be (post)human in a new digital regime marked by the erosion of living matter, conversion of life into big data, rising ethnofascism and disintegrating democracies. June 2, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-dust-that-has-settled-still-hurtles-through-space/ 2022-09-16T14:59:00.000+00:00 daily Projects The dust that has settled still hurtles through space September 16, 2022 2:59 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/purgatory-edit/ 2022-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Purgatory EDIT ***purgatory* EDIT** is an archival project shaped as a user-generated montage-based cinematic experience highlighting long-term and deliberate methods in which digital technologies enforce subliminal visual manipulation, sensory overload, data fatigue, psychological reaction, and ideological numbness. The project comprises an artist-assembled media archive titled the **Doomscroll Archive**, a visual semiotic research and analysis process culminating as a **Violence Intensity Map**, and an immersive technomediated **Cyber Performance**. <div style="padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1087800583?badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="Ali Akbar Mehta, purgatory EDIT | Creating Knowldege Systems, 2025"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script> <br/> 2022 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-the-war-that-is-coming-is-not-the-last-one-part-i/ 2021-06-12T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects WRE ~ The war that is coming is not the last one, part I June 12, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/war-room-echo-regarding-the-pain-of-other-cyborgs/ 2021-02-12T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects WAR • ROOM • ECHO: Regarding the Pain of Other Cyborgs February 12, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/central-park-archives/ 2020-07-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Central Park Archives July 15, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ballad-of-the-lost-utopian-meadow/ 2020-03-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Ballad of the Lost Utopian Meadow March 15, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/to-whomsoever-it-may-concern/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects To Whomsoever it May Concern 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-cyber-archive-questions/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Cyber ~ Cyber Archive: Questions An Archive of questions  2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-archiving-knowledge-sculptures/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Cyber ~ Archiving Knowledge, sculptures 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/maunula-speaks/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Maunula Speaks 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/is-the-representation-of-violence-also-violent/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Is the representation of violence also violent? 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-million-colours-of-violence/ 2016-11-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects 256 Million Colours of Violence 256 Million Colours of Violence, a survey-based interactive archival research project, invites online and onsite audiences participation to actively co-create an archive of colours that represent ‘violence’. Know more about the project and participate online at [www.256milioncoloursofviolence.com](http://www.256millioncoloursofviolence.com/) November 24, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/unbecoming-finnish/ 2016-06-02T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects (Un)Becoming Finnish June 2, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/pudding-manifesto-for-togetherness/ 2016-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Pudding Manifesto for Togetherness January 11, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/trinity-godrej-legacy-park-silos/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects TRINITY: Godrej Legacy Park Silos 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/contemporary-ruins-of-kruunuvuori/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Contemporary Ruins of Kruunuvuori 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/what-a-wonderful-world/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects What a Wonderful World 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-mazgaon-interviews-fakhruddin-and-khateeja-merchant/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects sss ~ Mazgaon Interviews – Fakhruddin and Khateeja Merchant 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/site-stage-structure/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects SITE : STAGE : STRUCTURE SITE : STAGE : STRUCTURE is an archival documentary project. It is a Transmedia Installation that integrates books, objects, photographs, short films, audio narratives, and heritage walks as a way of revitalizing memories and telling a history that is absent from the formal narratives. 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/planktonian-people/ 2013-08-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Planktonian People August 1, 2013 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/superheroes-the-league-of-superheroes/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Superheroes ~ The League of Superheroes 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/tasher-desh/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Tasher Desh 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/plank-unselfed-extended/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects plank ~ Unselfed Extended    Unselfed Extended is a mix media body of work that includes a series of drawings/copper plate etchings, prosthetic sculpture/masks and other props/objects. It is an interpretive work based on and furthering the artistic vision of an 80 minute performance of the same name. It is a search for a hybrid form, one which invites the viewer to engage simply with bodies moving in space, with gestures, with objects, movement, images and the spoken word... 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-superhero-series/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects The Superhero Series 2012 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/luminous-matter/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Luminous Matter [Luminous Matter](http://luminousmatter.in/) is a collaborative experimental short film, set in a parallel post-apocalyptic present, where mankind no longer exists. In a world covered with nuclear fog and left to total ruin, a rapidly evolving race of uranium-based life forms called Ouraosteus have emerged. <br/> 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ballad-of-the-war-that-never-was-and-other-basterdised-myths/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Ballad of the War that Never Was, and Other Basterdised Myths 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/we-are-such-stuff-as-dreams-are-made-on/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects We are such stuff As dreams are made on 2010 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/goodbye-blue-sky/ 2006-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Projects Goodbye Blue Sky 2006 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/haihatus-25/ 2024-06-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work HAIHATUS 25     ### HAIHATUS25 HAIHATUS25 is part of ***Haihatus 25th Anniversary***. Preview: Saturday 15th of June, 11:00 onwards Opening party: 18:00.to 5:00 am  Haihatus Art Center, located at Jousitie 68-70, Joutsa. June 15, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/hb-agonistic-intelligences-or-another-ais/ 2023-08-14T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work HB ~ Agonistic Intelligence/s (or another AI/s)  **Agonistic Intelligence/s (or another AI/s)** is a gathering of invited provocateurs, guest speakers, and participants to form a research-led working group that engages with a shortlisted selection of the HAM art collection as a key focal node and as an *archival site of inquiry*. The working group will convene for an intensive 6-day period during the Helsinki Biennale 2023, from August 14-19, 2023, at HAM Salli, Helsinki Art Museum, with open-to-public evening lectures and discussion programs. August 14, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/hb-new-directions-may-emerge/ 2023-06-12T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work HB ~ New Directions May Emerge In 2022, I was invited to be a part of the co-curatorial team of the Helsinki Biennali, 2023 by its head curator [Joasia Krysia](https://helsinkibiennaali.fi/en/hb23/). This team, dubbed Co-curatorial Intelligences by Joasia, comprised Ali Akbar Mehta and Giovanna Esposito Youssif from **[Museum of Impossible Forms (MIF)](https://www.museumofimpossibleforms.org/)**, Markus Reymann from **[TBA21–Academy](https://www.tba21.org/#item--academy--1819)**, Jussi Parikka, May Ee Wong and Paolo Patelli from **Critical Environmental Data**, Bassam El Baroni and Patrizia Constantin from **[ViCCA @ Aalto ARTS – Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA)](https://www.aalto.fi/en/department-of-art/visual-cultures-curating-and-contemporary-art-vicca)**, and **AI Entity** created by artist **[Yehwan Song](https://helsinkibiennaali.fi/en/artist/yehwan-song/)** and the **[Digital Visual Studies project](https://dvstudies.net/)**. June 12, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/archives-as-contemporary-object-x/ 2022-07-02T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Archives as Contemporary Object 'X' The Archive as Contemporary Object ‘X’ (ArCo-X) is a podcast series project that investigates through discourse, the nature of the archival today, seeking to unpack the several system issues affecting the world around us, through a multifocal lens of archiving as artistic, curatorial, and research praxis. In these critical discussions, the invited speakers – critical thinkers, media theorists, data law and policymakers, social activists, political theorists, art and cultural workers, as well as the moderator/hosts – will examine how data censorship, power/knowledge matrix, and direct, structural, and cultural forms of violence affect the way we interface with data and shape our online archives. The project is crucial in consolidating the active and present voices to reveal how ‘queer anti-racist post-internet aesthetics’ may be utilised to create ‘Politically Conscious Archives’ for the future: as open-source, free, online platforms. July 2, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/how-to-work-together-extended-notes-on-collaboration/ 2021-10-21T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work How to work together? Extended notes on collaboration  The ‘How to Work Together?’ podcast series is a culmination of the first collaboration between [PLATFORM](http://www.platform.fi/) X [Museum of Impossible Forms](https://www.museumofimpossibleforms.org/) in 2020. These podcasts and conversations, under the umbrella of collaboration, are infused with the possibilities and limits of location identity and practice. They discuss desires of working together, outline ecologies of collaboration, and para-institutional community-led praxis as a primary aim and processual goal. October 21, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/mif-how-to-work-together-seeking-models-of-solidarity-and-alliance/ 2021-10-07T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Mif ~ How to Work Together? Seeking Models of Solidarity and Alliance  The Impossible Reader is a biennial book series published by the Museum of Impossible Forms. The theme of the 2020 reader is **How to Work Together – Seeking models of solidarity and alliance**. It gathers a selection of essays, writings and poems on and around the topic of collective working practices. The publication also reflects and celebrates the past four years of operations of the Museum of Impossible Forms cultural centre in Kontula. <br/> > Publication concept and Production*: Ali Akbar Mehta & Marianne Savallampi* > > Edited by: *Emily Aiava & Raine Aiava* > > Publication coordinator & graphic design: *Zahrah Ehsan* > > published by Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki, FI. <br/> **ISBN (print): 978-952-94-4840-1** **ISBM (pdf):** **978-952-94-4841-8** **<br/>** download a free PDF from the Museum of Impossible Forms website **here** **<br/>** The Reader features entries by: > Abdullah Qureshi > > Ali Akbar Mehta > > Arvind Ramachandran and Ella Alin > > Egle Oddo > > Feminist Culture House > > Flis Holland > > Jaakko Pallasvuo > > Leonardo Custodio > > Linnea Saarits > > Marianne Savallampi > > Nora Sternfeld > > Pedra Costa > > Raine Aiava > > Renuka Rajiv > > Saara Mahbouba > > Sasa Nemec > > Shia Conlon > > Vidha Saumya and Sonja Lindfors > > Yvonne Billimore and Jussi Koitela > > Zahrah Ehsan <br/> The Reader is available for purchase at the Museum of Impossible Forms. <br/> October 7, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/public-talk-pauliina-feodoroff/ 2021-06-03T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Public Talk: Pauliina Feodoroff June 3, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/gathering-for-rehearsing-hospitalities-spring-2021/ 2021-04-19T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Gathering for Rehearsing Hospitalities Spring 2021 <iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/641689708?h=7c480900bf" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> In this short video the curatorial partners Frame Contemporary Art Finland, m-cult and Museum of Impossible Forms of Gathering for Rehearsing Hospilaties Spring 2021 open up their collaboration process and approaches. This video gives insight into the thinking and discussions which have shaped the gathering as well as the relations between our different contributions to the programme. Speakers: Yvonne Billimore and Jussi Koitela ([Frame Contemporary Art Finland](https://frame-finland.fi/)), Iida Nissinen and Minna Tarkka ([m-cult](https://www.m-cult.org/)) and Ali Akbar Mehta and Marianne Savallampi ([Museum of Impossible Forms](https://www.museumofimpossibleforms.org/)) April 19, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/helsinki-international-artist-program-summer-residency-2020/ 2020-05-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Helsinki International Artist Program: Summer Residency 2020 May 15, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/network-effects/ 2019-11-17T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Network Effects  ***Network Effects*** is an international exhibition confronting the political, ecological, and psychological effects of today's online world. The projects investigate the online landscape of propaganda, profiling, and cyberwars, making visible the algorithmic manipulation of our experience and environment. The concept of 'network effect' is used in economics to describe how the value of a service increases with each new user, enabling more connections within the network. It also explains the success of online services, when a critical mass of users adopt the service, making its value greater than its costs. November 17, 2019 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/vidisha-fadescha-party-a-tool-for-care/ 2019-09-12T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Vidisha Fadescha: Party, a tool for Care September 12, 2019 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/outsiders-at-work/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Outsiders at Work 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-archive/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Cyber Archive 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/museum-of-impossible-forms/ 2016-12-09T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Museum of Impossible Forms The **[Museum of Impossible Forms](https://museumofimpossibleforms.org/)** **M{*if*}** is an anti-racist, queer feminist cultural centre located in Sompassaari (originally Kontula). **M{*if*}** is built on the proposal that the 'Museum' is a space in flux – a contested space representing a contact zone, a space of unlearning, formulating identity constructs, norm-critical consciousness and critical thinking, already containing within it the potential for the *para museum*, the *counter museum*, the *anti museum*. ‘Impossible Forms’ are those that facilitate the process of transgressing the boundaries/borders between art, politics, practice, theory, the artist and the spectator. As one of its founding members, I was appointed its Co-Artistic Director, form Aug 2018 - Dec 2020. During this time, my curatorial framework, **The Atlas of Lost Beliefs: For Insurgents, Citizens, & Untitled Bodies,** focused on collaborative, transdisciplinary, and intersectional community-building. As the co-Artistic Director, I managed the library/archive, event logistics, daily operations, and finances. I conceptualised, coordinated production, and led teams of project leaders and curators to execute 160+ events, under a portfolio of designed and curated projects : 1. **MIF Discourse Series** 2. **Society of Cinema**, curated by Danai Anagnostou (2018-2019) 3. **Performance LAB**, curated by varialambo (2020) and Vishnu Vardhani Rajan (2018-19) 4. **Improv Sessions**, curated by *Sergio* *Castrillón* (2018-2020) 5. **Radical Cross-stitch Workshops**, hosted by *Marianne Savallampi* and *Vidha Saumya* (2020) 6. **M{*if*} Monthly Dinners**, hosted by Vidha Saumya and Ali Akbar Mehta 7. **Feminist Anti-Rascist (FAR) Night School**, curated by Arvind Ramachandran 8. **Reading Circle** 9. **Entry to Iraniain Music**, curated by *Aman Askerazid* 10. **Summer School**, curated by *Christopher Wessels* and *Ahmed Al-Nawas* (2017) 11. **Impossible Reader**, curated by *Ali Akbar Mehta* and *Marianne Savallampi* (2020) and *Christopher Wessels* and *Sergio* *Castrillón (*2017) **Special Events + Hosted events** 1. **Ubuntu Film Club**, curated by *Alice Mutoni, Fiona Musanga,* and *Rewina Teklai* 2. **Rehearsing Hospitalities** (as collaborative partner of Frame Contemporary Art Finland), curated by *Jussi Koitela* and *Yvonne Billimore* 3. **POC Open Mic Nights**, curated by *Arvind Ramachandran*, Under these projects, we worked with 500+ artists, collectives, and institutional partners (per year) in various capacities, and attracted over 5600 visitors in 2019 and 2020. I regularly wrote and lectured on M{*if*} and its decolonial, queer-feminist, and norm-critical ethos in multiple academic journals and publications, such as **Marginaaleista museoihin**, **Rasismi, valta ja vastarinta**, **The Museum of the Future: 43 New Contributions to the Discussion about the Future of the Museum**, **Six years in the Third Space**, **Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 1**, and **Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2**; and at Conferences and talks, such as **Notes for Radical Diversity** at Helsinki Art Museum (HAM), **Resistance and Reimagining Alternatives** at the Center for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism, (CEREN), University of Helsinki, **Creative Practices for Transformational Futures** at Aalto University, and **Re-Musing the Museum: Part II** at the Kiasma Contemporary art Museum. Through these efforts, the Museum of Impossible Forms has been the recipient of the **State Art Prize** awarded by the Ministry of Art and Culture (2020) and the **Tutkijaliitto-palkinto** by the Finnish Association of Researchers (2019). December 9, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/soak/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work SOAK 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/material-immaterial/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Curatorial work Material /// Immaterial 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/conflictorium/ 2023-12-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances Conflictorium December 1, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/abdication-of-the-geniuses/ 2022-10-29T19:08:00.000+00:00 daily Performances Abdication of the Geniuses ### Abdication of the Geniuses Otober 29-30, 2022 **Abdication of the Geniuses** 29 - 30.10.2022 is a Multidisciplinary Art Festival held at Oksasenkatu 11 -gallery and Maunulatalo culture centre, Helsinki. The two-day festival shows, exhibits, envisions and converses interpretations of contemporary life. The artist-run festival exhibits performances, dance, video art, film, sound art, and experimental music.    October 29, 2022 7:08 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/blum-ballad-of-the-lost-utopian-meadow-live/ 2021-08-28T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances BLUM ~ Ballad of the Lost Utopian Meadow: LIVE  As part of the exhibition, **Aikakoneita ja utopioita** | Time Machine and Utopias, a series of 3 LIVE performances of the **Ballad of the Lost Utopian Meadow** were conducted, comprising of an introduction performed by Ali Akbar Mehta and Vidha Saumya, an excerpt of the Ballad performed by varialambo (Varia Sjöström and Hatz Lambo), and ‘Ruis’, an autoethnographic fiction about the history and life-cycle of rye written and performed by Joss Allen. August 28, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-habitat-1/ 2021-02-13T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating WAR / HABITAT 1 February 13, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-reciprocities/ 2021-02-11T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Reciprocities February 11, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-glitchverse/ 2020-06-12T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances cyber ~ Glitchverse  > > **Glitchverse** was performed as an online lecture-performance for \[Souja/Shelter Festival 2020](http://suojashelter.tilda.ws/), on 12.07.2020 June 12, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-new-performance-turku-festival-2020-mobilities/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating WAR, New Performance Turku, Festival 2020: Mobilities  <div style="padding:75% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/645953698?h=de2bad8c67&amp;badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="Narrating WAR, 2020, Mobility: New Performance Festival, Turku"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script> <br/> <div style="padding:75% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/645960931?h=0fe620201c&amp;badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" title="Narrating WAR, 2020, Mobility: New Performance Festival Turku-trailor 02"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script> <br/> > Narrating WAR is an invitation to imagine a relationship between the ‘known’ and the ‘unknown’ of our collective human history. It is an ongoing series of performance readings of a comprehensive list of ‘wars, battles, sacks, sieges, revolts, revolutions, bombings and insurgencies – from 3000 BC to the present’ that provides a comprehensive tableau of a history of human beings as a continuous history of violence and conflict. 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/direct-contact-feedback/ 2019-05-20T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances direct contact // feedback  > Through direct-contact, we stage a ‘time travel’ to Colonial India, where the chapati (a form of unleavened bread) becomes the site for agency, insurrection and community, and then move back forward in time through a history of roti, (and bread in general), which is fraught with radically charged associations: of nobility (let them eat cake), Communist equality (those who grow it, will eat it), institutionalised poverty, where workers, day-wage earners, labourers and farmers carry rotis, salt, and an onion for a ‘working lunch’, and of institutionalised capitalism, where it is preferable for food grain to be burnt than donated. > > With this radically round low-tech weapon, this imperfect tool, how can we strategically engage with and resist the socio-political of the neo-liberal, xenophobic, and far-right positions of today? > > In a time where food in Finland is forced to undergo the strenuous processes of contactless cooking (forcing cafeterias to use pre-cutting, prewashing with sanitizers, dehydration process, and other ‘healthy’ cooking methodologies), what capitalist insurrections do eating a food that is necessarily made by ‘direct contact’ and eating with unassisted fingers, mean? <br/> May 20, 2019 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-mymmala2-helsinki/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating WAR, Mymmälä2, Helsinki 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-experimental-event-vi-la-torre-de-babel-pori/ 2018-11-28T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating War, Experimental Event VI – La Torre de Babel, Pori November 28, 2018 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-museum-of-impossible-forms-helsinki/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating War, Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-carinarnica-nova-gorcia/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating War, Carinarnica, Nova Gorcia 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/participate-cyborg-archives-garbageingarbageout-tifa-working-studios-pune/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances participate ~ Cyborg Archives: GarbageInGarbageOut, TIFA Working Studios, Pune 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/participate-cyborg-archives-can-archives-speak/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances participate ~ Cyborg Archives: Can Archives Speak? 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/congratulations-the-space-is-invaded-now-what/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances Congratulations, the Space is invaded: Now What? 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-clark-house-mumbai/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating War, Clark House, Mumbai 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-kaapelitehdas-helsinki/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating War, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-kallio-public-library-helsinki/ 2016-04-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating War, Kallio Public Library, Helsinki April 15, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-pispala-tampere/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances wre ~ Narrating War, Pispala, Tampere <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7M0vfJweVU0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> Narrating War is ongoing multimedia performance-reading of 'War List Codex', a comprehensive timeline of every ‘war, battle, revolt, revolution, siege, sacking, rebellion, bombing & insurgency’, from 3000 BC to the present. This reading took place at The Memorial of the Red Guards, on September 6, 2016. The Red Gaurds died during the Finnish Civil War in Pispala, Tampere. The inscription in the stone says, > _‘On this Pispala ridge, the Red Guard in Tampere last stood with weopans in > hand defending their cause in 1918’._ 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/play-the-space-stupid/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Performances Play the Space, Stupid! 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/processual-representations-of-knowing-without-beginnings-nor-endings/ 2024-03-22T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Processual (re)presentations of ‘knowing’ without beginning(s) nor end(ings) March 22, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-politics-of-togetherness-beyond-the-integration-infrastructure-of-state-and-institutional-apparatus/ 2023-11-30T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts The Politics of Togetherness: Beyond the integration infrastructure of State and institutional apparatus  **Politics of Togetherness** explores migration-oriented mobility in its multiple modalities of capacity, privilege, right, and need. It hypothesizes that contemporary mobility is inseparable from passports, legal permits, papers, and the inherently normalized bias within the infrastructures they create, to highlight the inseparability of mobility from the politics of sanctions, regulatory policies, and policing, inseparable from its economies–literally of currencies and value–extending into issues of what affordances such value provides. By articulating how issues of mobility and integration are inextricably linked to bordered thinking, nation-building, and nationalism, it outlines nation-building strategies as inherently segregationist and instrumental in transforming the governance of human mobility into policing, security management, and the mitigation of risk. By problematizing ‘integration infrastructure’ as a political desire for financial stability, cultural homogeneity, and the enforcement of borders through the lens of historical struggles as well as the distribution of power and privilege, it investigates how state-led art and cultural institutions support and work to maintain propaganda generation that normalize ‘otherness’. Through four case studies in Finland and EU, the paper posits that the governance of human mobility may be one of the most important political problems to confront us in the 21st century and highlights the role and culpability of the art and cultural institutions that exacerbate it. November 30, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-boycean-double-bind-exquisite-tension-as-a-pedagogy-of-free-play/ 2023-11-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts The Boycean double-bind: Exquisite Tension as a pedagogy of free play November 24, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/a-tessellated-life-space-structures-as-a-philosophy-of-perseverance/ 2023-11-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts A tessellated life: Space Structures as a philosophy of perseverance November 24, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/a-rhythmic-play-of-possibilities-in-time-obliquo-policromo-as-a-holder-of-existential-potentialities/ 2023-11-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts A rhythmic play of possibilities in time: Obliquo Policromo as a holder of existential potentialities. November 24, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/on-the-edge-of-the-relational-between-and-beyond-cyber-realities/ 2023-07-18T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts On the Edge of the Re(lation)al: Between and Beyond Cyber Realities  This text posits questions that problematise existing frameworks and speculative reconfigurations of what we know and understand to be “real” to explore virtual reality as a post-material construction. How can we differentiate between the real and the virtual? Are such categorisations necessary today? Rather than probing categories, it is useful to investigate the nature and post-materiality of the virtual as a phenomenon that holds increasing currency. That currency may be understood by delineating a brief history of the virtual in the contexts of, on the one hand, technodiverse reconfigurations of the utopian promise of cyberspace and the political potential of Net Art and, on the other, its acquired role within big tech and entertainment, its capacities for surveillance extractivism, and its increasing openness to neoliberal capitalist exploitation. July 18, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/on-recognising-the-moment-of-hope-speaking-in-echoes-with-hiwa-k/ 2022-11-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts On Recognising the Moment of Hope: Speaking in Echoes with Hiwa K.   > Art is a small platform that only elites are listening to. Not so many people know what artists are saying. So as artists, we need to build organic spaces where people can come and where you don’t have masters and disciples, only participants. Where we could go back to a certain set of core values, you know, Marx also talked about this, ‘you have to produce where you are’, and ‘take people out from that *alienation of production*’. <br/> November 15, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/who-watches-whom-ruminations-on-power-gaze-and-field-through-pilvi-takalas-close-watch/ 2022-06-22T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Who watches whom? Ruminations on power, gaze, and field through Pilvi Takala’s Close Watch *Close Watch* exhibited at the National Finnish Pavilion at Venice Biennale, 2022, is a multimedia installation that, at its core, utilises the artist themself as an embodied intervention within a focused area of artistic research and apparent critique. In the context of this work presented as an exhibition at the national pavilion and its implications of somehow representing Finnish Art, this text seeks to question whether issues pertaining to embodiment and social intervention – and by extension, research conducted and artistic practice developed through it – can ever be free of the power relations implicit in the political, identity-driven understanding of society today. June 22, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/bearing-witness-articulating-an-archival-practice/ 2022-06-22T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Bearing Witness: Articulating an Archival Practice The number and intensity of conflicts that our age is a witness to are both perplexing and overwhelming. With ongoing instances of wars, conflicts, insurgencies, genocide-level pogroms, riots, bombings, state & extra-state actions and operations, the people of our age have diversified the terminology pertaining to aggressive friction and violence. Furthermore, indirect violence and softer modes of conflicts – whether as forms of patriarchal, ethnic, racialised, colourist, ableist, or gendered enforcement of domination, or the colonial and caste-based extensions of supremacy – continue to alienate us from each other on a daily basis. We live in an age of rising ethnofascism and disintegrating democracies, where conflicts, pandemics, and human crises have become yet another tool for capitalist societies to recycle pain. Simultaneously, there is increasing information overload: online interfaces for knowledge are steadily becoming opaque, and the data we produce serves the capitalist pursuits of Surveillance Empires, corporations and governments. By declaring ownership of their users’ data and engaging in be-havioural manipulations for data extractivism, Surveillance Empires and necropolitical governments reshape political world orders, based on techno-legal architectures of control, disenfranchisement, risk management, and legalised policing of violence. We are living in the age of ‘Planetary Entanglement’ where violence is a fundamental condition at the core of the human experience, in which we are bound to ask, How to work through the methods and processes of decolonisation, while being assaulted with new forms of colonial, or neo-colonial practices – whether social, political, or economic – on a regular basis? How to learn, to adapt to a historical timeline of struggle against hegemonic power, while unlearning the fundamental biases within the foundations of one’s own being? Read the full text [here](https://tiedejaedistys.journal.fi/article/view/120081/71453) June 22, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/touchingtransforming-notes-towards-collective-critical-artistic-research-practices-and-processes/ 2021-12-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Touching/Transforming: Notes Towards Collective Critical Artistic Research Practices and Processes [Cluster for Critical Artistic Research (CCARe)](https://www.ccare.aalto.fi/) was established in 2019 as a research group within the Department of Art at Aalto University, Finland for critical artistic researchers. The research group brings together a community of doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty members at the university and beyond. In June 2021 CCARe organized the two-day seminar Touching/Transforming in Suomenlinna at HIAP (Helsinki International Artist Programme) and online. This seminar was centred around a public-online talk by Skolt Sámi theatre director and artivist Pauliina Feodoroff (2021). Suomenlinna is an island in front of Helsinki with complex connections to Finland’s socio-political histories. The main attraction of the island is the fortress, which was built in 1748, a few years before a land reform popularly known as the Great Partition. Pauliina’s talk addressed, among other things, this and various other moments in history when land has been appropriated, privatized or resold for profit in imperial and colonial nation-building projects in the Finnish context. The subject of land uses and care for the land was a central thread in the discussions that ensued. December 1, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/mif-generating-another-economy-working-together-at-the-museum-of-impossible-forms/ 2021-08-01T00:28:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Mif ~ Generating (An)Other Economy: Working Together at the Museum of Impossible Forms   <br/> August 1, 2021 12:28 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/noniin-a-longing-for-something-written-in-memory-library-as-archive-as-excavation-site/ 2021-03-23T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts NONIIN ~ A longing for something written in memory: Library as Archive as Excavation Site March 23, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/mif-cultural-production-and-racism-how-to-challenge-racist-structures/ 2021-02-15T11:35:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Mif ~ Cultural production and racism: How to challenge racist structures  Essay written in collaboration with Marianne Savallampi, for [Racism, Power and Resistance](https://www.gaudeamus.fi/rasismivaltajavastarinta/ "Permalink to Suvi Keskinen, Minna Seikkula & Faith Mkwesha (eds.): Racism, Power and Resistance (4/2021)") (in Finnish) > Everyday racism is often subtle and not appalling. Many don’t even understand their behavior as racist. > > Racism permeates Finnish society as an everyday and experiential phenomenon, but it is also an institutional and structural problem. The Black Lives Matter movement has also sparked a debate here and shown that many people need information that is specifically adapted to the Finnish environment and based on research. Who can or must talk about racism? > > *Racism, power and resistance* present racism and colonialism in Finnish society and their global connections. Everyday examples of high school TET training for policing are eye-opening. The work questions the racist definitions of Finnishness and the unhistorical understanding of racism, and makes anti-racism visible. The work gives voice to racist researchers and civic activists and provides tools for anti-racist action. February 15, 2021 11:35 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/museum-of-impossible-forms-voicing-the-margins/ 2021-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Museum of Impossible Forms: Voicing the Margins  > *What constitutes the Margins? And how do we calculate with any precise method the marginality of any lived experience?* > <br/><br/> 2021 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/processing-in-betweenness/ 2020-11-21T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Processing In-Between(ness) '\[...] this publication, as a collaborative endeavor between the curators Marianne Savallampi and Ali Akbar Mehta and the artists-in-residence, is a culmination of an ‘in-between’ time. It documents this time conversations, discussions, email-chains, and chats, collaborative explorations, and confessions – that aim to act as a guide to the methods of working adopted by these artists/ duos/ collectives. For us, it maps a brief moment of time, of histories and memories. For the artists, it is simultaneously a space to reveal and share the processes that go into the making of these varied multi-layered practices, and possibly a speculative imaginary of what lies beyond their own horizons.' The full pdf as a downloadable file is soon available on the HIAP website. Below is the Introduction to the publication written jointly by Marianne Savallampi and Ali Akbar Mehta: <br/> November 21, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-shape-of-museums-to-come/ 2020-11-18T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts The Shape of Museums to Come “The 19th-century museum is dead.” But the ghosts, ghouls, undead spectres of the old museum still haunt us, hovering over the boulevards of contemporary imagination and the bylanes of our futurity. Such museums, remnants of another time and place, are extensions of a colonial gaze preoccupied with the centralisation of power, and physical proofs of its own labour to ‘bring’ culture as enforced methods of living to the far-off, distant and exotic margins of the Eastern and the Western, the Northern and the Southern corners – in as much as there can be corners on a round ball of stone, mud, and water; as well as a method to ‘take’ objects that were less of a curiosity and more trophies of power. Historical objects in museums are more often than not contested objects; whose cultural significance is either questionable to begin with, reflecting a colonial, classist, misogynistic, or otherwise xenophobic relationship to the world of its time; or a hegemonic relationship between the museums and countries currently housing or ‘owning’ them, and their countries of origin; or objects that in their own relative status of uniqueness have now ossified into an oblivion of permanence. > *\-excerpt from text* <br/> <br/>    <br/><br/> November 18, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/safer-evolving-the-conditions-for-collaboration/ 2020-10-30T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts SAFE{R}: Evolving the Conditions for Collaboration "The word *collaborate* comes from Latin roots. Words beginning with the prefix '*col-*' meaning together, implying doing something together. The root word '*laborare*', also from Latin, gives us many of the English words used to talk about careers and work. In fact, the word labor comes from this root word. Putting the two Latin parts of this word together, the word literally means ‘to work together’. <br/>   October 30, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/walkin-the-portal/ 2020-05-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Walkin the Portal > ## “How can this process \[of sharing data] be democratised? How can we create a system that does not function as a one-way stream of information collection?” In conversation with Vivek Chockalingam, Walkin studios, I respond to the questions about data and share insights about [256 Million Colours of Violence](http://www.256millioncoloursofviolence.com/) – a project that concentrates on the archive as a means of resistance, to challenge systems of power and destabilise institutionalised and social structures that direct life.   <br/> > Walkin the Portal is available as a PDF on [www.walkinstudios.com](http://www.walkinstudios.com/?fbclid=IwAR38bZygjNV7t2BEqDM1oepILxZVAP9Z5BKy7CBYPDolHEl5D375vWYq8pc) or **[here](https://bb0dc41b-fc9d-4412-87ec-0a6804a9c602.filesusr.com/ugd/780913_5b71c388ba1f414cb7f706a8075b0565.pdf)** > > Featuring interviews with:\ > Meenakshi Thirukode / Anil Menon / Sultana Zana / Rahul Giri / IOCOSE / Jennifer Hodgson / Gayatri Kodikal / Akshat Nauriyal / Nick Tobier / Tatiana Bazzichelli / Mathangi Krishnamurty / Andrea Ulrich / [Ali Akbar Mehta](https://aliakbarmehta.com/) / Harun Morrison / Josephine Simone / Suvani Suri > > Designed by Anna Thomas and Tessy Thomas\ > Curated in collaboration with Marialaura Ghidini. *Read the transcript below:* <br/> <br/> May 1, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/muse-who-is-welcome-thinking-hospitality-as-museum-of-impossible-forms/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Muse ~ Who is Welcome? – Thinking Hospitality as Museum of Impossible Forms *"...the issues of hospitality and fantasy are inextricably linked – the promise of equality has always been weighed against its counter mechanisms of right-wing populist politics, neoliberal capitalism, ethno-fanato-nationalism, and its older more virulent strains of memetic concepts, namely patriarchy, misogyny, cissexism and its pseudo-scientific offspring – race, class, and caste. A relationship between reason and unreason (fantasy) embedded within the late modern criticism has been the basis of articulation for a certain idea of the political, the community, the subject – a ‘Biopolitical’ agency, one that inherently above all and everything else is ‘able to’..."* <br/><br/>  <br/><br/> 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-a-cyber-archive-of-questions/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Cyber ~ A Cyber Archive of Questions ***A Cyber Archive of Questions*** is an essay published in **'cohabitant/mutants', Restricted Fixations, issue one** – an independent zine curated and edited by Renuka Rajiv.  2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/akbar-padamsee-1928-2020-at-25-he-was-25000/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Akbar Padamsee 1928-2020: At 25, he was 25000 I have a faint memory of the first time I met Akbar Padamsee, but I vividly remember the first time I saw his Metascape series in the late 90's, a decade and a half after they were conceived and executed.. At the time, I didn’t know that the controlled colours and formal lines indicated a Parisian influence, or his use of symbols like the sun and moon (as the two controllers of time), portrayed a deep engagement with Sanskrit texts such as Kalidasa’s Abhijnanasakuntalam. To a 16 year old me, they were sci-fi landscapes, of a distant world waiting to become known. They were ‘cool’. Even more fascinating were his Computer generated images that looked like psychedelic explorations totally out of character of an engaged mind. Akbar's many reputations preceded him, he was as much a philosopher as he was a painter, and a scholar of Sanskritic linguistics. He was known to be the creator of mathematical colour graphs in paintings and an aptly self-defined 'grammarian of art'. 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/outsiders-abhinit-khanna-make-memes-not-war/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Outsiders ~ Abhinit Khanna : Make Memes not War 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/outsiders-sasa-nemec-my-teenage-angst-never-faded-i-am-still-rebelling/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts outsiders ~ Saša Nemec: My Teenage Angst Never Faded, I Am Still Rebelling 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/notes-for-radical-diversity/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Notes for Radical Diversity In November 2019, I was invited to talk about diversity within the art and cultural scene of Helsinki, to the curatorial staff at Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki. *The following is the prepared text of the talk and workshop:* 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/outsider-tuike-and-simo-alitalo-all-ears-are-equal/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Outsider ~ Tuike and Simo Alitalo: All Ears are Equal 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/mif-how-to-be-a-hospitable-without-being-a-motel-thinking-hospitalities/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Mif ~ How to be a hospitable without being a motel: Thinking Hospitalities Museum of Impossible Forms (m{*if*}) is a cultural centre run by artists/ activists/ curators/  philosophers/ hustlers located in Kontula, East-Helsinki. Within the method of exchange, we strive to work with the existing culture(s) of Kontula and East Helsinki, with specifically seeking to develop a relationship with the organisations, projects, commercial shops, and community nodes in the area. We equally wish to participate in the continuous flow of an emergent culture that develops daily inside and outside the premises of the Museum of Impossible Forms, and the Kontula mall spaces. 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-to-not-wait-for-the-archive-home-and-labour-mired-in-the-complications-of-invisibalisation/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Cyber ~ To Not Wait for the Archive: Home and Labour mired in the complications of Invisibalisation The idea of *home and labour* itself has been mired in the complications of invisibilization of labour, the misdirection of value and surplus, and the recontextualization of the capitalist system as the driver of home politics. Is the home, as a site of labour – both visible and invisible – a public space? Not through physical proximity and shared-ness, but as the conceptual framework relevant to all our preoccupations? If we imagine the home as a centre – whether we conform to the idea of a home, rebel against it or are indifferent to it – the home serves as a node through which we may think about “the untagged and unnumbered zones of cultural and political possibility” opened up through an “active seeking out of engagement, exchange, and intersection through the modes of mutuality, collaboration, and emplacement, an experimental poetics of belonging”. 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/atlas-of-lost-beliefs-for-insurgents-citizens-and-untitled-bodies/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Atlas of Lost Beliefs (for Insurgents, Citizens, & Untitled Bodies) The Atlas is ‘a book of maps or charts’. We gazed into the Atlas and dreamt of places we would like to visit. The Atlas was our window to strange and alien worlds, connected by an incomprehensible amount of water. Today, the Atlas as a portal, as a device for dreaming is a forgotten artefact, instead mired in historiographies and anthro-political readings of a world that was. Even now in a time obsessed with the past, devoted as it is to the cult of memory and the fetish of heritage, something still goes forward. Even now when there is no general direction, nor a subject who is supposed to lead, we cannot but ask where to place our next step, what to take along or leave behind. Yet there are still prospects, or in philosopher Bruno Latour’s words, “the shape of things to come.” 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/food-and-other-practices-at-the-arthouse/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts FOOD and Other Practices at the Arthouse 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-cyber-archive-archiving-as-a-sustainable-counter-hegemonic-practice/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Cyber ~ Cyber Archive: Archiving as a sustainable counter-hegemonic practice 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-cyber-archive-being-and-doing-knowledge/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Cyber ~ Cyber Archive: Being and Doing Knowledge The thesis is framed through the question: How can ‘archives transformed by the use of digital technologies’ be studied within the framework of ‘Cybernetic relations’? What are the parameters of this study – its historic and technical vocabulary, socio-political roots and ethical considerations that shape these relations – and what are the implications of this practice?  2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/an-ode-to-erkki-kurenniemi/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts An Ode to Erkki Kurenniemi 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-colours-of-violence-aroop-iii-totems-and-taboos/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts 256 ~ Colours of Violence, AROOP III - Totems and Taboos 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-photons-of-politics-footnotes-for-a-new-history/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts The Photons of Politics: Footnotes for a New History 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/locating-the-museum-of-impossible-forms/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Locating: The Museum of Impossible Forms 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/border-crossing-reshaping-the-agency-of-struggle/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Border Crossing: Reshaping the Agency of Struggle 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts wre ~ Narrating War Violence & the culture it consumes/perpetuates is a fundamental condition lodged in the core of human experience. It is simultaneously private, public, self-intimating & collective. War is an easy thing to look away from, if we are sitting miles away – we change the channel, we compartmentalise them, sort and neatly fold them into civilizations, time periods, regions and nationalities. By accepting war as normal we have become passive participants. War tears, rends. War rips open, eviscerates. War scorches. War dismembers. War ruins. War is actually Hell. To make visible this phenomena, I began research in 2014 to compile a timeline of _‘every war, battle, revolt, revolution, siege, sacking, rebellion, bombing & insurgency’,_ from 3000 BC to the present. This ongoing timeline/database is the foundation of the project, and forms the key ‘script’ for an ongoing multimedia performance-reading of this list, titled ‘**Narrating War**’. 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-inescapable-manifest-destiny-of-the-artworld-culture-defining-art-through-the-state-of-the-artworld-today/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts The Inescapable Manifest Destiny of the Artworld Culture: Defining Art through the state of the Artworld today In the theoretical once upon a time, and probably the actual one, everyone (or at least most) read about art. Everyone went to the theater. Everyone knew the composer of the day. Everyone discussed the arts and everyone loved them. Then the 20th century happened. In the words of composer and critic Theodor Adorno, “New music has taken upon itself all of the darkness and guilt of the world.” Sure he was referring to music but the assertion could just as easily be broadened to include the entire world of art. European and American artists and composers and writers in the early 20th century saw violence like the world hadn’t seen for hundreds of years. The manifold amount of changes wrought by technology and innovation in fin de siècle Europe and America meant nothing about life before would ever be the same. Then World War One and World War Two turned the world completely upside down. How could we go back to the way the world was before? The answer was that we couldn’t. Modernism was here. 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/no-one-at-the-ceremony-remembers-to-mention-the-artist/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts No one at the ceremony remembers to mention the artist 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/kru-perfect-ghosts/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Kru ~ Perfect Ghosts In in the midst of an old forest, next to a pond that could be anywhere in wilderness is the area of Kruunuvuori, which in the etymology of Suomi means ‘The Crown Mountain’ – which is about three kilometers from Market Square in the very center of Helsinki as the crow flies – has ghostlike old villas hidden amidst ancient forest left at the mercy of nature, with only the slow inevitable passing of time as its companion. Dilapidated and forgotten for decades, these villas still struggle against elements and time. 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-why-is-an-archive-of-wars-required/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts wre ~ Why is an archive of wars required? The French poet Eugene Guillevic, whose ‘Charnel Houses’ (1947) is one of the first, and finest, poetic responses to the Shoah (Jewish, meaning Holocaust), once wrote, _‘Yes, even horror can be lived out in poetry. This is not to say that poetry weakens or diminishes horror – what it perhaps means is that poetry translates horror to that level where, lived out through poetry, it is no longer degrading.’_ <br/> 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-war-list-codex/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts wre ~ War List CODEX 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-artist-book-1-performers-of-mazgaon/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts sss ~ Artist Book 1: Performers of Mazgaon 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-artist-book-3-kwan-tai-shek/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts sss ~ Artist Book 3: Kwan Tai Shek 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-artist-book-2-daarukhana/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts sss ~ Artist Book 2: Daarukhana 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/on-superheroes-and-science-fiction/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts On Superheroes and Science fiction 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts Poems 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/a-body-split-in-two/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Texts A Body Split in Two 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/images-of-war-technological-violence-aesthetics-and-archive/ 2025-06-06T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Images of War: Technological Violence, Aesthetics & Archive #### Aspects of Presence Art in Times of Militarisation | Symposium 5 – 6 June 📍 Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz <br/> To reinforce NATO’s eastern borders in response to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, Germany is permanently deploying a military brigade to Lithuania. “Aspects of Presence” takes this as a starting point to explore, from an artistic perspective, the ongoing militarisation as well as the questions and potential futures that arise from it. Through artistic contributions, discussions, and lectures, the symposium examines the intersections of military, ecological and technological developments, as well as entangled artistic practices of resistance and solidarity. The event provides space for artists and audiences to engage with the complexities and ambivalences of the ongoing geopolitical shift, allowing for nuances and reflection. <br/> June 6, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/shifting-perspectives-a-historical-perspective-to-struggles-and-resilience/ 2025-05-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Shifting perspectives – a historical perspective to struggles and resilience May 15, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ali-akbar-mehta-the-residency-at-delfina-foundation-has-been-an-intimate-way-to-engage-with-the-london-art-scene/ 2025-05-14T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Ali Akbar Mehta: “The residency at Delfina Foundation has been an intimate way to engage with the London art scene” May 14, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/living-in-archival-time-or-at-the-end-of-narratives/ 2025-04-11T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Living in archival time, or at the end of narrative(s) April 11, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/living-in-archival-time-or-at-the-end-of-narratives-transmediale/ 2025-02-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Living in archival time, or at the end of narrative(s) @ Transmediale > “Archives are the documentary by-product of human activity retained for their long-term value.” This internationally accepted definition of archives is proposed by the *International Council of Archives* – a transnational network of organisations with 1900 member archives across 199 countries and territories and is underpinned by the idea of value. And yet, we are living in a world where the notion of value itself – across a spectrum of things, objects and ideas, histories and cultures, even people – is being constantly questioned and revised. Although state and institutional (legacy) archives have historically been agencies that preserve knowledge, it is now almost universally accepted that traditional archives, inextricably linked to what Derrida calls 'Archontic Power' (Derrida: 1995), have colonial roots and serve as monuments to how power is organised. They are performative sites of segregation, racialisation and immobilization of communities. Coloniality as the ongoing ‘colonisation of power, knowledge, and being’ (Moladanado-Torres: 2007), is not limited to the technical organisation of infrastructure but testify to the narratives of exclusion that cement archives as “not just pieces of data, but a status symbol” (Mbembe: 2002). It continues to affect ‘what is archived, who archives it, for whom’, defining ontological understandings of what archives may or may not do.        A traditional linear concept of time is no longer sufficient to capture the complexities of contemporary digital archives and their narratives. Living in ‘Archival Time’, or at the end of narrative(s) explores new relationships between archives, time, narratology and its various media. It examines the impact of digital archives on our perception of time through three distinct yet interconnected trajectories: (1) The Multiplicities of Archives and Power; (2) Archival Time; and (3) Databases and the End of Narrative. February 1, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-nature-of-information-exploring-the-difference-that-makes-a-difference/ 2024-08-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching The Nature of Information: Exploring the difference that makes a difference August 1, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/countering-archival-fascism-moving-from-technopolitical-regimes-to-technodiverse-cosmologies/ 2024-06-06T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Countering Archival Fascism: Moving from technopolitical regimes to technodiverse cosmologies June 6, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/where-to-start-when-everything-is-urgent-intersectionalities-priorities-and-empathy/ 2024-05-14T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Where to start when everything is urgent – intersectionalities, priorities and empathy May 14, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/echo-effects-conversations-on-war-and-environment/ 2024-03-28T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Ec(h)o Effects: Conversations on War and Environment **Ec(h)o Effects: Conversations on War and Environment**, a monthly discursive program designed across 2024 (9 months) diving into the intricate entanglements between war and the environment. This program is developed by Artists with Evidence, in collaboration with **Ali Akbar Mehta** and **Colin Greer**, and moderated by Ines Montavlo, program director of AwE. Ali, Colin and Ines will also be present throughout the entire Ec(h)o Effect: Conversations on War & Environment series, along with several guest speakers who join the upcoming conversations. **Ec(h)o Effects** is supported by the **Globus Opstart** grant (2024) from The Nordic Culture Fund. March 28, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/curating-across-cultures/ 2023-09-28T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Curating Across Cultures In this ARTIVAL Talk, we delve into the realm of curating across cultures, exploring the dynamic interplay between cultural diversity and representation in the Nordic art field. September 28, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-realities-hybridity-and-the-users-of-archives-aalto-university-fi/ 2023-09-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Cyber Realities, Hybridity, and the Users (of Archives), Aalto University, FI September 15, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/collective-and-community-based-art-practices-and-their-political-potential/ 2023-09-08T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Collective and community-based art practices and their political potential September 8, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/hb-agonistic-intelligences-or-another-ais/ 2023-08-14T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching HB ~ Agonistic Intelligence/s (or another AI/s)  **Agonistic Intelligence/s (or another AI/s)** is a gathering of invited provocateurs, guest speakers, and participants to form a research-led working group that engages with a shortlisted selection of the HAM art collection as a key focal node and as an *archival site of inquiry*. The working group will convene for an intensive 6-day period during the Helsinki Biennale 2023, from August 14-19, 2023, at HAM Salli, Helsinki Art Museum, with open-to-public evening lectures and discussion programs. August 14, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/archiving-in-the-age-of-data-power-and-violence/ 2023-05-02T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Archiving in the Age of Data, Power and Violence May 2, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/read-write-modify/ 2023-02-02T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching read-write-modify February 2, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/who-watches-whom/ 2022-10-23T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Who Watches Whom? October 23, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-politics-of-curating/ 2022-09-10T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching The Politics of Curating September 10, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/how-to-work-together-tools-and-practices-for-transgressional-collective-work/ 2022-05-18T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching How to work together: tools and practices for transgressional collective work Structural change is not possible without collaboration and collective work, but how to work together? How can a collective host diversity? What to navigate with different needs and desires in order to reach a common goal? What to do in conflict situations? In the panel, the guests delve into the methodologies and practices of transgressional collective work. <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fstophatrednow%2Fvideos%2F983637982317569%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=4695" width="560" height="314" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe> Watch the video [here](https://fb.watch/dVoi8i6tzF/) May 18, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/a-small-introduction-to-the-history-of-art-from-the-indian-subcontinent/ 2021-11-08T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching A small introduction to the history of art from the indian Subcontinent November 8, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/decolonisation-in-the-arts-and-cultural-fields/ 2021-10-13T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Decolonisation in the arts and cultural fields <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pWP5R7oVmX8?start=8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Dr Carol Ann Dixon and Ali Akbar Mehta in conversation about decolonisation in the arts and cultural fields, joined by Neicia Marsh, Programme Director of Society at the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland; and moderated by Monica Gathuo. <br/> October 13, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/artists-vidha-saumya-and-ali-akbar-mehta-recipes-come-together-from-resources-and-we-are-not-living-in-the-world-where-everybody-have-the-same-resources/ 2021-07-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Artists Vidha Saumya and Ali Akbar Mehta: Recipes come together from resources - and we are not living in the world where everybody have the same resources  > ### [Episode 9: Artists Vidha Saumya and Ali Akbar Mehta: "Recipes come together from resources - and we are not living in the world where everybody have the same resources"](https://aikakoneitajautopioita.fi/podcast/episode-9-artists-vidha-saumya-and-ali-akbar-mehta-recipes-come-together-from-resources-and-we-are-not-living-in-the-world-where) <iframe src="https://anchor.fm/aikakoneita-ja-utopioita/embed/episodes/Episode-9-Artists-Vidha-Saumya-and-Ali-Akbar-Mehta-Recipes-come-together-from-resources---and-we-are-not-living-in-the-world-where-everybody-have-the-same-resources-e13lapf/a-a613gim" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> July 1, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cpa-central-park-archives-access-commons-and-networks-of-care/ 2021-05-27T09:34:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching CPA ~ Central Park Archives: Access, commons and networks of care <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dCxyFHkOxlE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> M-cult hosts an event with artists, researchers and activists to discuss notions of access within contexts of urban spaces and online resources. How to think about care, commoning and governance in these hybrid networks of social, ecological and digital? <br/> May 27, 2021 9:34 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/mobility-and-its-discontents/ 2021-03-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Mobility and its Discontents  "The subject of conversation is certainly topical, yet it is hardly new, at least for many non-European citizens of the world, as well as the several historically marginalised, racialised, segregated, and oppressed communities.  For many individuals, groups and communities, the right to mobility has been a severely 'restricted commodity' and global mobility has never been a reality for the majority of the world. In fact, Achille Mbembe rightly calls international mobility “a surplus of luxury”.  Now with the COVID pandemic, mobility is a particularly ‘hot’ topic and a spoken issue precisely because it jeopardizes this “right” of the relatively rich(er) and elite." – Ali Akbar Mehta, excerpt from talk March 1, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/kuvan-kievat/ 2020-11-20T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Kuvan Kievat November 20, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/archives-as-knowledge-systems/ 2020-10-14T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Archives as Knowledge Systems October 14, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-towards-a-new-internet-in-conversation-with-palash-mukhopadhyay/ 2020-05-05T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching 256 ~ Towards a New Internet: In conversation with Palash Mukhopadhyay May 5, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-violence-in-finnish-society-in-conversation-with-arvind-ramachandran/ 2020-04-28T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching 256 ~ Violence in Finnish Society: In conversation with Arvind Ramachandran April 28, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-digital-creativity-and-entanglement-in-conversation-with-timo-tuhkanen/ 2020-04-26T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching 256 ~ Digital Creativity and Entanglement: In conversation with Timo Tuhkanen April 26, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-is-there-a-room-with-just-a-colour-in-conversation-with-camelo-ramiro/ 2020-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching 256 ~ Is there a room with just a colour? In conversation with Camelo Ramiro April 16, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/mif-creatures-panel-discussion-on-creative-practices-for-transformational-futures/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching mif ~ CreaTures: Panel Discussion on Creative Practices for Transformational Futures Invited to speak about the **[Museum of Impossible Forms](https://www.facebook.com/impossibleforms/?__cft__[0]=AZWfW_W0tCwUBowgySg3pWz-QK23UT_9WvQjm95qNrAHwHSFpBjPo-LId67prZUxqgKhT3wwg6DMbi99BVA5vbLsp8BzWGKn4ts1moZuGYUjkoy2EnNctUoOMNxg03ByglKJrdENkFog7Q0Ui6kYuz7xmFJyPx1Oudh9SgrW_ukYr0f_NnB__2CbIjXnIm_BwCs&__tn__=kK-R)** and its role as a transformative tool within the contemporary artistic and cultural scene of Helsinki, at [Creative Practices for Transformational Futures](https://www.facebook.com/creaturesEu/?__cft__[0]=AZWfW_W0tCwUBowgySg3pWz-QK23UT_9WvQjm95qNrAHwHSFpBjPo-LId67prZUxqgKhT3wwg6DMbi99BVA5vbLsp8BzWGKn4ts1moZuGYUjkoy2EnNctUoOMNxg03ByglKJrdENkFog7Q0Ui6kYuz7xmFJyPx1Oudh9SgrW_ukYr0f_NnB__2CbIjXnIm_BwCs&__tn__=kK-R) Panel Discussion as part of [Helsinki Design Week](https://www.facebook.com/HelsinkiDesignWeek/?__cft__[0]=AZWfW_W0tCwUBowgySg3pWz-QK23UT_9WvQjm95qNrAHwHSFpBjPo-LId67prZUxqgKhT3wwg6DMbi99BVA5vbLsp8BzWGKn4ts1moZuGYUjkoy2EnNctUoOMNxg03ByglKJrdENkFog7Q0Ui6kYuz7xmFJyPx1Oudh9SgrW_ukYr0f_NnB__2CbIjXnIm_BwCs&__tn__=kK-R). 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cpa-rehearsing-hospitalities-companion-2-readings-with-annet-dekker-and-susanna-anas-and-ali-akbar-mehta/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching CPA ~ Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2 Readings with Annet Dekker, and Susanna Ånäs and Ali Akbar Mehta <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YUeC7AnDZDE?controls=0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Welcome to **Rehearsing Hospitalities Companion 2 Readings** with Annet Dekker, and Central Park Archives artists Ali Akbar Mehta and Susanna Ånäs, hosted by the publication editors Yvonne Billimore and Jussi Koitela. 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cpa-central-park-archives-workshops/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching CPA ~ Central Park Archives - workshops  The *Central Park Archives* project organised two workshops, on **19.08.2020** and **01.09.2020** to introduce *open source*, and *open content* tools and practices for collaborative online publishing. Why and how to contribute to Wikipedia, Wikidata, OpenStreetMap, and other open projects, and how to use Creative Commons licenses to grant permission to share? Using topics and materials from **Central Park Archives** as case examples in the workshop, participants learned to create new Wikipedia articles on related places, organisations, and natural phenomena. Both sessions ended with a short 'clinic' for the *Central Park Archives*, where participants were able to book private sessions with project team members for sharing their own collection with the archive. Participants are asked to bring their materials with them, for example on a memory stick or hard drive. 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/resistance-and-reimagining-alternatives/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Resistance and Reimagining Alternatives In November 2019, I was invited to speak about [Museum of Impossible Forms](https://museumofimpossibleforms.org/). *The following is the transcript of the talk:* <br/> 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/notes-for-radical-diversity/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Notes for Radical Diversity In November 2019, I was invited to talk about diversity within the art and cultural scene of Helsinki, to the curatorial staff at Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki. *The following is the prepared text of the talk and workshop:* 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cyber-cyber-archives/ 2018-11-21T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching cyber ~ Cyber Archives The 'School of Archeutopia' in a talk with [Ali Akbar Mehta](https://www.facebook.com/aliakbarmehta?__cft__[0]=AZVAnrZykD-3EkL1_UfLThhkUfkVb-8JxhlqYei0sm0S__UcobLrZKIZvp-A1S_bHaVsGnre0GhjImZZXtkIQ-_VVGr1IMEsaKMtkUIf97EzUhRR4EPvlN22vkpCMG3rmtKp3QBc51V99O02DBpfdY-g&__tn__=-]K-R) on 'Cyber Archives' - their roles and responsibilities as collective memory, as 'the embodiment of the witness', and as a 'location of culture'.   November 21, 2018 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/re-musing-the-museum-part-ii/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Re-Musing the Museum: Part II **Re-Musing the Museum: Part II** was a talk presented in my capacity as Co-Artistic director of Museum of Impossible Forms, discussing the precarity of cultural work in the context of Museum work. > \[I]n today's information society, museums have an important role to play in preserving, producing and transmitting information. However, as cultural funding continues to decline, the responsibility for producing information and culture increasingly shifts to the individual: the museum worker, the artist, the spectator and the experiencer, the museum visitor, the curator. How can museums redefine themselves in a rapidly changing world? This was the first event in the **[ArTalk series titled ArTalk: Just Art? Ethics, guidance and art autonomy](http://taku.fi/tag/taide/)** was organized by TAKU Ry (Culture Worker's Association) and MAL Ry (Museum worker's Union), on 27 November 2018 at the **Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma**. <br/> *Below is the text of my prepared lecture performance:* *<br/>* *<br/>* 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/maunula-remix/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Maunula Remix 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/archiving-histories-in-the-present/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Archiving: Histories in the Present 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/possible-and-impossible-futures/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching Possible and Impossible Futures 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-urgency-of-asking-questions/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching 256 ~ Urgency of Asking Questions <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X9zBcIMHf10" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> Ali Akbar Mehta talks to [Kevin Lobo](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevlobo/) about his project '256 Million Colours of Violence' and the urgency of asking questions. They discuss tools of inquiry used and attempt to dissect the various narratives presented through the survey. Inquiries into colour, violence and their perceptions can lead to multiple directions – the conversation looks at how the narrative experience of colour may be embodied, embedded and extended in the contexts of these meanings. 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-memory-and-the-maximum-city/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching sss ~ Memory and the Maximum City 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-folkarchive-ali-akbar-mehta/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Talks & teaching sss ~ FOLKARCHIVE: Ali Akbar Mehta 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/latb-x-hervisions-digital-intimacies/ 2025-05-16T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions LATB X HERVISIONS: Digital Intimacies    *This iteration of **purgatory*** **EDIT** *is supported by the [Finnish Institute in the UK + Ireland.](https://www.fininst.uk/)* May 16, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/delfina-foundation-science-technology-society/ 2025-05-06T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Delfina Foundation: Science-Technology-Society > Based in the heart of London, Delfina Foundation is an independent, non-profit foundation dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange and developing creative practice through residencies, partnerships and public programming. #### Delfina Foundation: Science Technology Society Winter Residency 2025  *science_technology_society* seeks to support contemporary interdisciplinary approaches that consider, intervene in, and speculate on the world in which we live and its possible futures. The third season of *science_technology_society* explores how emergent technologies complicate our understanding of mental well-being. The season probes the potential for intersecting art, science, and technology to reimagine mental health support, justice, and pride. We live in a time in which mental suffering appears to be both increasingly profound and ever-proliferating. It is common to hear arguments about how the development of digital technologies has exacerbated our mental health crisis — as they drastically shape our sense of self, social relationships, as well as living and labouring conditions. However, those same technological advances are often held up as offering solutions, including opening up new possibilities of forging connections, building support systems, and addressing marginalised needs. Against this fast-evolving socio-political, technological, and discursive backdrop, the winter 2025 residency season at Delfina Foundation invites practitioners to depart from the following questions: how could we re-examine the conceptualisation of ‘mental health’ today? What new mental landscapes could we envision? What forms of radical Mad knowledge and structures of care could we produce? May 6, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/purgatory-edit-liberation-archives-for-the-cyborgs-of-now/ 2025-01-09T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions purgatory EDIT: Liberation Archives for the Cyborgs of Now **Purgatory EDIT: Liberation Archives for the Cyborgs of Now** premiers at Transmediale Studio from January 9 to February 2, 2025. It was installed as part of **[UnNatural Encounters](https://emare.eu/news-events/emap-group-show-unnatural-encounters-silent-green)**, on view from January 9 to 19, 2025, at silent green, and as part of the *transmediale festival 2025*, '**[near near but — far](https://transmediale.de/en/pressRelease/festival-2025)**', taking place from January 30 to February 2, 2025. <iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1064069580?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;badge=0&amp;autopause=0&amp;player_id=0&amp;app_id=58479" width="1920" height="1080" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media" title="purgatory EDIT (short intro), 2025"></iframe> <br/> January 9, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/after-school-tafaria-art-foundation/ 2024-10-18T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions After School: Tafaria Art Foundation October 18, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/european-media-art-platform-emap-residency/ 2024-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions European Media Art Platform (EMAP) Residency April 16, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/after-school-theira-commune/ 2024-04-04T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions After School: Theira Commune April 4, 2024 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cruel-radiance/ 2023-06-02T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Cruel Radiance More than at any other moment in human history, we are now confronted by contemporary borders manifesting as incarceration camps, penal colonies, detention facilities and refugee centres. Countries are gradually becoming prisons to confine and contain undesirable bodies. The well-being and welfare of citizens and ecology are being replaced by concerns for security and risk management. Conflicts are simply becoming tools for neo-liberal capitalism to recycle pain. Such violence leads to long-term trauma, helplessness and precarity, causing significant negative influences on our social fabric. Yet, in a hyper-digitised world, forms of violence remain invisible or unrecognised. Recognising and narrating such experiences become difficult unless we find ways to understand how violence is defined and applied across micro (interpersonal), meso (institutional), and macro (trans-societal) scales. For these processes to be known, they must be explored, visualised, satirised and challenged.  In times where violence, conflict, and trauma are normalised as everyday happenings, Ali Akbar Mehta's practice performs the task of critical storytelling of historical narratives. Bringing together local and geographically distant perspectives on constructing historical narratives that shape our political landscape, encourages its audience to revise and reconsider what stories we tell and how we share them. It casts the audience, not as a passive spectator, but as a critical witness.  <br/> For Cruel Radiance, Mehta shows two separate archival projects that complement and amplify each other: > ### Purgatory Archive   > > 2016-ongoing > > ### War List CODEX > > 2014-ongoing <br/> Access them using this QR code or link [here](https://cruelradiance.aliakbarmehta.com/)   <br/> June 2, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/technologies-of-critical-conscientization/ 2023-05-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Technologies of Critical Conscientization May 15, 2023 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/abdication-of-the-geniuses/ 2022-10-29T19:08:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Abdication of the Geniuses ### Abdication of the Geniuses Otober 29-30, 2022 **Abdication of the Geniuses** 29 - 30.10.2022 is a Multidisciplinary Art Festival held at Oksasenkatu 11 -gallery and Maunulatalo culture centre, Helsinki. The two-day festival shows, exhibits, envisions and converses interpretations of contemporary life. The artist-run festival exhibits performances, dance, video art, film, sound art, and experimental music.    October 29, 2022 7:08 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/into-the-void/ 2022-09-23T16:37:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Into the Void September 23, 2022 4:37 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/commonplaces-and-entanglements-vi/ 2022-06-10T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Commonplaces and Entanglements VI June 10, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/locus-of-control/ 2022-04-09T00:09:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Locus of Control ### The exhibition presents works by contemporary artists Ali Akbar Mehta, Arvind Sundar, Digbijayee Kathua, Govinda Sah Azad, Koshy Brahmatmaj, Kedar DK, Sarika Mehta, Shalaka Patil, Tushar Waghela, Urvi Sethna, Sonakshi Sinha, Luv Sinha, and Kush Sinha. **<br/>** > **LOCUS OF CONTROL** is a psychological concept that refers to how strongly people believe they have control over the situations and experiences that affect their lives. The concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954 and has since become an aspect of personality psychology. A person’s “locus” (plural “loci”, Latin for “place” or “location”) is conceptualized as internal (a belief that one can control one’s own life) or external (a belief that life is controlled by outside factors which the person cannot influence, or that chance or fate controls their lives). > > The exhibition examines this notion of control, not as a theme or subject, but as a constitutive feature of artists’ practice, process, and methodologies of art production. It seeks to disentangle notions of empathy and hostility in their work. In a pandemic where we were all challenged to find solutions against the consistent erasure of survival, identity, wellbeing and freedom, we were able to collectively get through such a difficult period in human history through > > creative expressions, yet we continue to feel the pain and learn the ways of healing. For these artists being in “in control” or “out of control” is an essential feature of how work gets made. In this exhibition, we explore this fluid idea, the production of artworks as personalities, our intention and reception, the resilience of humankind, our hopes, frustrations, and making sense of the world while it is still testing positive for Covid. April 9, 2022 12:09 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-data-vitality-soft-infrastructures-and-economies-of-knowledge/ 2021-11-18T14:12:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions 256 ~ Data Vitality: Soft Infrastructures and Economies of Knowledge   **<br/>** **Exhibition Curatorial Note:** The exhibition explores the changing role of data in society by combining interdisciplinary perspectives on how data policies are shaping education and research across art, science, business and technology. November 18, 2021 2:12 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/reboot-me-softly-↻/ 2021-11-18T13:22:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Reboot Me Softly ↻ November 18, 2021 1:22 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cpa-central-park-archives-maunulatalo/ 2021-08-18T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions CPA ~ Central Park Archives, Maunulatalo     <br/> The Central Park Archives installation at Maunula House will present a selection from the first collections of the archive. Histories, observations and struggles of the park are narrated and documented with audio, video, photos and maps. The installation also invites visitors to share their observations and join the collections. August 18, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-to-err-is-human/ 2021-06-13T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions wre ~ To Err is Human June 13, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/blum-time-machine-and-utopias-longing-living-conditions-homecoming/ 2021-05-08T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions BLUM ~ Time Machine and Utopias: Longing, Living conditions, Homecoming  The **[Time Machines and Utopias](https://aikakoneitajautopioita.fi/)** is an exhibition series showcased in three museums, Tarvaspää, Ainola and Visavuori, which explore the museums’ possibilities to operate in our changing society. The exhibition is based on the topical theme of climate change intending to force a rethinking of our day-to-day choices on food, travel and housing. As part of this exhibition, **‘The Ballad of the Lost Utopian Meadow’** by Vidha Saumya and Ali Akbar Mehta is presented as a studio-recorded sound work accessed via the project website, and an installed audio-video work, and as LIVE performances of the ballad, by *varialambo* (Varia Sjöström and Hatz Lambo), and ‘Ruis’, an autoethnographic fiction about the history and life-cycle of rye written and performed by Joss Allen. <br/> **Performance dates** > 22 August 2021 Visavuori  > > 29 August 2021 Tarvaspää > > 13 August 2021 Ainola <br/>Detailed information available on the Time Machine and Utpias website **[here](https://aikakoneitajautopioita.fi/)**, and in English **[here](https://aikakoneitajautopioita.fi/kieliversiot/english).** ##### <br/> May 8, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-reciprocities/ 2021-02-11T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions wre ~ Reciprocities February 11, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-is-there-a-room-with-just-a-colour/ 2020-04-16T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions 256 ~ Is there a room with just a colour?   *Is there a room with just a colour?* at [Myymälä2](http://www.myymala2.com), Helsinki is an exhibition by artist **Ali Akbar Mehta** inviting online and on-site audiences to participate and become co-creators of a living archive that represents colours of violence. > ## *Where do you fit in the larger scheme of things? Is your citizenship made doubtful? Is your right to live questioned? Does the question, ‘Where are you from?’, seem like a violent intrusion normalized through repetition?* By transforming the commonplace ‘survey questionnaire’ into a diverse communication interface, the project subverts the problematic usage of questionnaires as bureaucratic tools for data collection. With particular emphasis on questions of gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship, it reveals the presence of violence – in routine everyday questions, and in everyday life. Through 50 questions gathered from various bureaucratic forms, the project facilitates an ‘encounter of equals’ and serves as a witness, a therapist, and a mirror, creating a new vocabulary of colour in the context of violence. April 16, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/lost-the-meadow/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Lost ~ The Meadow  ## Copper Smithy, Fiskars ## 18.6.-30.8.2020 ## Open daily 11am-6pm > The exhibition [Meadow](https://onoma.fi/en/meadow/#more-5783) sets out to address the planetary ecological urgencies through a dialogue between contemporary art, craft, design and environmental research. 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cpa-central-park-archives-sound-walk/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions CPA ~ Central Park Archives sound walk The **pilot phase** of *Central Park Archives* culminated with a launch of the interface and a curated walk that demonstrated the workings of the website interface, in the Allotment gardens of Maunula's Central Park. Artists **Susanna Ånäs** and **Ali Akbar Mehta**, in collaboration with **Arun Ganesh** from Mapbox and technical support from **Palash Mukhopadhyay**, developed a locative map interface as part of their **[M-cult Residency](https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/central-park-archives#central-park-archives-announcement)** in Maunula. Visitors experienced the archive on-site, by walking in the forest. Through the walk, the audience/participants explored the hybridised physical+digital space through stories, interviews, and ambient soundscapes presented as audio files, as well as photographs and archive documents. Through the website's "exploration mode" they found the mapped elements by following the increasing volume of the sounds as they grew nearer and other directions provided by the interface. With aerial photos from previous decades, the map interface also makes visible the geographical changes to the Park, the Maunula area, and its surroundings. 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/central-maunula-commons/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Central ~ Maunula Commons  Central Park Archives is a project exploring practices of collaborative archiving together with communities and residents of Maunula. The long-term project is inaugurated in Spring 2020 as a local/online residency with **Susanna Ånäs** and **Ali Akbar Mehta**, who have an artistic practice dealing with archives and the commons. 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/a-tapestry-of-time/ 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions A Tapestry of Time 2020 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-making-space/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions sss~ Making Space 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/participate-assembly-of-access/ 2018-02-06T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions participate ~ Assembly of Access February 6, 2018 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/to-participate-in-the-archive/ 2018-01-05T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions To Participate in the Archive January 5, 2018 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/to-whomsoever-no-corners/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions To Whomsoever ~ No Corners 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/maunula-partizaning-maunula/ 2017-09-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Maunula ~ Partizaning Maunula September 1, 2017 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/out2/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions OUT2 An ongoing, collaborative research project: OUT 2, presented in Venice as a multi-screen installation and series of related events. 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/is-isnot-sculpture-for-the-post-truth-era/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions IS ~ IS/NOT: Sculpture for the Post-Truth Era  2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ateria-the-meal/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Ateria/ The Meal 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-limitations-of-liability/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions 256 ~ Limitations of Liability **Limitations of Liability** was an eight day program between March 17 to 28, 2017, structured around ‘**256 Million Colours of Violence**’ – an interactive survey-based-research project by contemporary transmedia artist, **Ali Akbar Mehta**. This interactive survey-based-research project started in 2016, now includes more than 200 entries of people from all walks of life. 256 Million Colours of Violence is available to the public for free. The exposition of the past survey results will be installed along with a participation booth at The Mumbai Assembly and Harkat studios inviting everyone to participate in the ongoing survey.    Held across three venues – The Mumbai Assembly (Bandra), The Piramal Art Foundation (Lower Parel) and Harkat Studios (Versova) – the program also included poetry recitations, talks and discussions, and a series of films screenings concerned with the subject of violence and trauma. <br/> 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-256-million-colours-of-violence-exhibition/ 2016-11-24T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions 256 ~ 256 Million Colours of Violence, Exhibition November 24, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/immersion-2016/ 2016-11-21T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Immersion, 2016 November 21, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/unbecoming-space-invaders-iv-heterotopia/ 2016-05-16T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions unbecoming ~ Space Invaders IV: Heterotopia May 16, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/pud-whose-history-is-it-anyway/ 2016-01-11T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Pud ~ Whose History is it Anyway?* January 11, 2016 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/soak-soak-illusia/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions SOAK ~ SOAK, Illusia  > To "immerse" > > To "penetrate" > > To "impregnate" SOAK is the first edition of the project "Occupation of Decontextualised Spaces for Contemporary Art", taking place in *movement*, a *fleeting moment.* 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/play-immersion-2016/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions play ~ Immersion 2016   Sonic, Spatial, Conceptual, and tectonic Experiments 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/trinity-trinity-godrej-legacy-park-silos/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions TRINITY ~ TRINITY: Godrej Legacy Park silos 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-site-stage-structure/ 2014-08-14T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions sss ~ SITE : STAGE : STRUCTURE August 14, 2014 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/tasher-tagore-lost-and-found/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Tasher ~ Tagore Lost and Found 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/plank-small-is-beautiful-ii/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions plank ~ Small is Beautiful – II 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/beyond-the-canvas/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Beyond the Canvas 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/superheroes-equilibrium/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Superheroes ~ Equilibrium **The League of Superheroes** was exhibited at **Equilibrium** February 20 -March 08, 2013 Tao Art Gallery Window Gallery Space 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/small-is-beautiful/ 2012-07-15T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Small is Beautiful July 15, 2012 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/superheroes-of-men-and-supermen/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Superheroes ~ Of Men and Supermen        **Of Men and Supermen** TAO Art Gallery India Art Festival 2012 Mumbai 2012 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/space-118/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions SPACE 118 2012 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ballad-ballad-of-the-war-that-never-was-and-other-basterdised-myths-tao-art-gallery/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Ballad ~ Ballad of the War that Never Was, and Other Basterdised Myths, TAO Art Gallery 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/we-are-april-salon/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions We are ~ April Salon 2010 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/three-new-voices-dimensions-in-time-and-space/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Three New Voices: Dimensions in Time & Space 2010 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/celebrating-india/ 2007-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily Exhibitions Celebrating India 2007 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ali-akbar-mehta-the-residency-at-delfina-foundation-has-been-an-intimate-way-to-engage-with-the-london-art-scene/ 2025-05-14T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Ali Akbar Mehta: “The residency at Delfina Foundation has been an intimate way to engage with the London art scene” May 14, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/artist-interview-with-ali-akbar-mehta-purgatory-edit-transmediale-2025/ 2025-03-18T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Artist interview with Ali Akbar Mehta (purgatory EDIT), transmediale 2025 March 18, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/trolls-in-the-election-campaign-who-protects-us-from-fake-news/ 2025-02-14T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Trolls in the election campaign: Who protects us from fake news? February 14, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/purgatory-edit-a-multimedia-installation-that-questions-the-vocabularies-of-violence/ 2025-01-23T14:32:00.000+00:00 daily About purgatory EDIT: A Multimedia Installation That Questions The Vocabularies Of Violence January 23, 2025 2:32 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/making-the-invisible-visible/ 2025-01-12T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Making the Invisible Visible January 12, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/a-crunching-dream/ 2025-01-12T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About A crunching dream January 12, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/new-and-last-chances/ 2025-01-09T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About New and last chances January 9, 2025 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/helsinki-biennial-2023-is-created-together-with-five-curatorial-collaborators/ 2022-09-13T12:40:00.000+00:00 daily About Helsinki Biennial 2023 is created together with five curatorial collaborators September 13, 2022 12:40 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/bearing-witness-articulating-an-archival-practice/ 2022-06-22T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Bearing Witness: Articulating an Archival Practice The number and intensity of conflicts that our age is a witness to are both perplexing and overwhelming. With ongoing instances of wars, conflicts, insurgencies, genocide-level pogroms, riots, bombings, state & extra-state actions and operations, the people of our age have diversified the terminology pertaining to aggressive friction and violence. Furthermore, indirect violence and softer modes of conflicts – whether as forms of patriarchal, ethnic, racialised, colourist, ableist, or gendered enforcement of domination, or the colonial and caste-based extensions of supremacy – continue to alienate us from each other on a daily basis. We live in an age of rising ethnofascism and disintegrating democracies, where conflicts, pandemics, and human crises have become yet another tool for capitalist societies to recycle pain. Simultaneously, there is increasing information overload: online interfaces for knowledge are steadily becoming opaque, and the data we produce serves the capitalist pursuits of Surveillance Empires, corporations and governments. By declaring ownership of their users’ data and engaging in be-havioural manipulations for data extractivism, Surveillance Empires and necropolitical governments reshape political world orders, based on techno-legal architectures of control, disenfranchisement, risk management, and legalised policing of violence. We are living in the age of ‘Planetary Entanglement’ where violence is a fundamental condition at the core of the human experience, in which we are bound to ask, How to work through the methods and processes of decolonisation, while being assaulted with new forms of colonial, or neo-colonial practices – whether social, political, or economic – on a regular basis? How to learn, to adapt to a historical timeline of struggle against hegemonic power, while unlearning the fundamental biases within the foundations of one’s own being? Read the full text [here](https://tiedejaedistys.journal.fi/article/view/120081/71453) June 22, 2022 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/manttas-fine-arts-weeks-can-give-itself-to-the-use-of-artificial-intelligence-man-has-a-similar-relationship-to-artificial-intelligence-as-to-god/ 2021-07-28T15:21:00.000+00:00 daily About Mänttä's Fine Arts Weeks can give itself to the use of artificial intelligence - Man has a similar relationship to artificial intelligence as to God July 28, 2021 3:21 PM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/environmental-anxiety-is-a-phenomenon-more-than-a-hundred-years-old/ 2021-07-16T11:44:00.000+00:00 daily About Environmental anxiety is a phenomenon more than a hundred years old July 16, 2021 11:44 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/artists-vidha-saumya-and-ali-akbar-mehta-recipes-come-together-from-resources-and-we-are-not-living-in-the-world-where-everybody-have-the-same-resources/ 2021-07-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Artists Vidha Saumya and Ali Akbar Mehta: Recipes come together from resources - and we are not living in the world where everybody have the same resources  > ### [Episode 9: Artists Vidha Saumya and Ali Akbar Mehta: "Recipes come together from resources - and we are not living in the world where everybody have the same resources"](https://aikakoneitajautopioita.fi/podcast/episode-9-artists-vidha-saumya-and-ali-akbar-mehta-recipes-come-together-from-resources-and-we-are-not-living-in-the-world-where) <iframe src="https://anchor.fm/aikakoneita-ja-utopioita/embed/episodes/Episode-9-Artists-Vidha-Saumya-and-Ali-Akbar-Mehta-Recipes-come-together-from-resources---and-we-are-not-living-in-the-world-where-everybody-have-the-same-resources-e13lapf/a-a613gim" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> July 1, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/makkaraa-piteleva-koira-herattaa-pariisin-ikavan-mantassa/ 2021-06-18T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Makkaraa pitelevä koira herättää Pariisin-ikävän Mäntässä June 18, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-ali-akbar-mehta-and-varialambo-narrating-war-habitat-1/ 2021-03-08T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About WRE ~ Ali Akbar Mehta & varialambo - Narrating WAR / Habitat 1 March 8, 2021 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/collecting-art-in-archives-in-conversation-with-ali-akbar-mehta/ 2020-10-03T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Collecting Art in Archives: In Conversation with Ali Akbar Mehta October 3, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/cpa-mehta-and-anas-keskuspuisto-arkistot/ 2020-08-20T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About CPA ~ Mehta & Ånäs: Keskuspuisto-arkistot The artists of the Central Park Archives project, Ali Akbar Mehta and Susanna Ånäs bring together the history, present, and future of Central Park together with the residents. Read the Interview published in Finnish **[here](https://maunulassa.wordpress.com/portfolio/mehta-anas-keskuspuistoarkistot/)** <br/><br/>  August 20, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/the-art-of-making-art-seen-through-the-lens-of-serving-and-consuming-food/ 2020-08-10T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About The art of making art seen through the lens of serving and consuming food August 10, 2020 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/in-conversation-with-ali-akbar-mehta/ 2019-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About In Conversation with Ali Akbar Mehta 2019 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-not-your-regular-archive/ 2018-01-16T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About 256 ~ Not your Regular Archive January 16, 2018 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/wre-narrating-war-pripovedovanje-vojne-ali-akbar-mehta/ 2018-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About wre ~ Narrating War / Pripovedovanje vojne: Ali Akbar Mehta 2018 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-there-is-a-light/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ There is a Light 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-harun-ii-ends/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Harun II (Ends) 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-harun-i-beginnings/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Harun I (Beginnings) 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/pe-purgatory-edit-methodology/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About PE ~ Purgatory Edit, methodology January 1, 2017 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-what-is-the-colour-of-violence/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About 256 ~ What is the colour of violence? 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-shades-of-violence/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About 256 ~ Shades of Violence 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/256-does-violence-have-a-colour/ 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About 256 ~ Does violence have a colour? 2017 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/trinity-the-spaces-are-alive/ 2016-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About trinity ~ The Spaces Are Alive 2016 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-site-specific/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ Site Specific 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-the-bb-art-showcase-ali-akbar-mehta/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ The BB Art Showcase: Ali Akbar Mehta 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-interview-memory-and-the-maximum-city/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ Interview: Memory & the Maximum City **What does ‘Memory & The Maximum City’ mean for you?** Memories matter in any day and age – I believe in the saying, “Those who forget history, are bound to repeat it”. In the context of the city and its people, the easiest thing would be to forget people who live beyond the perimeter of our immediate vision, but in doing so we condemn ourselves to be forgotten by others. How many of us know the basic history of Bombay? Does it matter? Does it matter whether we knew or not what happened? How important is it to know that Bombay Docks started in 1735 or that _Tarla House_ became J.J. hospital or that a structure such as _Hasanabad_ exists, or the story of _Pine Building_. At the end of the day the specifics may not matter. But what is important is that there is a sense of identity that we’re losing and that reflects in the way we live; it reflects in how we conduct ourselves; and it is reflecting in the way Mazgaon is changing. The experience of Mazgaon changing through time and space is what is seen in the exhibition. One of the things I like reminding people that Mazgaon has been a host to a number of different communities, _Sutari Gujratis, Bohri_ Muslims, Catholics, _Parsis_, Davidian Jews, Israelis and Chinese. Mazgaon represented a true cosmopolitan city – The kind we have always imagined it to be. Such projects enrich Mumbai’s art scene by offering something other than aesthetic wall-hangings and floor pieces, or theory-laden group shows. In an era in which right-wing groups continue to insist on Mumbai narrowly as a 'Hindu Marathi City', counter-historical practices like Site : Stage : Structure serve much more than ethnographic curiosity. 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-chinese-fortunes-and-other-mumbai-memories/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ Chinese Fortunes and other Mumbai Memories 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-to-begin/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ To Begin… 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-maurice/ 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Maurice 2015 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-the-possibility-of-alienation-ali-akbar-mehta/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ The Possibility Of Alienation – Ali Akbar Mehta 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-the-possibility-of-alienation/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ The Possibility of Alienation The possibility of alienation in a city that claims cosmopolitanism as a constant, cannot be attributed to the loss of cultural space specifically due to revisits to the city’s history, but bizarrely it has and specifically in particular name change that occurred many years go now erases those many diverse histories. Ali Akbar Mehta studied at the JJ School of Art that stood at the beginning of the road that leads into the city’s eastern districts. As one drives onto a flyover that shares the same name with Ali’s school and was built to circumvent the congestion and surely the people who gather at Bombay’s famous Bhendi Bazaar, one witnesses many ‘Stars of David’ that adorn the muralesque facades of the neo-gothic and art deco buildings that exist on the stretch. Here ‘Mumbaikars’ stare into the homes from the cars of a community whom they might not easily find in the endogamous housing societies of Bombay. 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-odes-and-inquisitions-sino-indian-connections-in-recent-indian-art/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ Odes and Inquisitions: Sino-Indian Connections in Recent Indian Art  The Joseph Batista Gardens is one of the pleasantest places in Mumbai. Sitting atop a hillock, the garden park literally lifts you out of the noise from which even the surrounding neighborhood of Mazagaon, sedate by Mumbai standards, cannot escape. 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-interview/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ Interview **\> What will be the focus of your talk; what will be the highlights?** SITE : STAGE : STRUCTURE is an archival project based within and around the geographical location of Mazgaon and Wadibunder. It is a Transmedia installation integrating books, photographs, video documentation, audio narratives and heritage walks as a way of revitalizing memories and telling a history that is absent from the formal narratives. The highlight of the exhibition are the paintings, each presenting an important aspect of the city's history and heritage; as well as photobooks of Mazgaon that document the changing demographic and visual identity of the space. The project maps Mathar Pacady, the remnants of Chinatown, a Bohri family’s apartment and Darukhana where ships are brought to be torn apart on the dry dock. Here I fight nostalgia by documenting it, recreating it through videos, conversations and staging ethnographic reconstructions of people’s homes. 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/sss-hidden-histories-of-mazgoan/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About sss ~ Hidden Histories of Mazgoan  'Hidden Histories of Mazgoan' are the accumulated research notes and trivia, gathered through online research, interviews, and conversations with local historians and residents. 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-the-ballad-of-you-and-me/ 2014-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ The Ballad of you and me 2014 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/superheroes-ali-akbar-mehta-in-conversation-with-namrata-bhawnani/ 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Superheroes ~ Ali Akbar Mehta in conversation with Namrata Bhawnani **Ali Akbar Mehta’s apartment in Madh Island doubles up as a studio for the artist and it’s not tough to see why he chose to make the island his base. The cosy sea-view apartment, with a balcony that overlooks a soothing green expanse, offers a sense of serenity in a chaotic city like Mumbai and is no doubt a stimulating space for an artist.** This enviable space’s resident, Mehta (29), recently showcased his lenticular series Of Men and Supermen at the India Art Festival. With five of seven works sold, Ali’s series stood out, making him an artist to watch out for. Costumes of superheroes were imposed on photographs of faces on the street. The photographs were extracted from a larger body of archival site-specific work based in Mazgaon and Wadibunder, which comprises an eclectic mix of chawls, shanties and tenements, amidst more permanent historic landmarks and its inhabitants. Mehta says, “These are characters we look at but don’t see them, they belong to the periphery of our vision. The fictional percolates into the realm of the real, generating a new urban metascape and transforming people into the Superheroes of their own narratives.” 2013 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/superheroes-visual-disobedience/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Superheroes ~ Visual Disobedience Ali’s work was Visual Disobedience’s pick of the art on display by emerging artists at the India Art Festival this year. We speak to him about how pictures of the poor don’t need to be patronising, the magic of using lenticular and why superheroes are myths of the modern world. 2012 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ballad-nothing-is-mundane/ 2011-09-20T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Ballad ~ Nothing is Mundane September 20, 2011 12:00 AM https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/lm-luminous-matter-press-kit/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About LM ~ Luminous Matter Press Kit 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/lm-dystopia-and-urban-imagination/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About LM ~ Dystopia and Urban Imagination  Film Screenings January 21 to 25, 2013 4:30 pm onwards 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ballad-somewhere-between-science-and-subjectivity/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Ballad ~ Somewhere between Science and Subjectivity Meera Nanda's concept of a hyper-spiritual and hyper-religious India, as a direct consequence of a global interest in Indic spiritualism and religion, is an interesting medium through which we can evaluate the identity of an Indian artist. With the world's eyes on India as a culture, how can Indians portray themselves to be genuine? And consequently, how Indian are artists, writers, dancers, actors etc? Can Ali be an Indian artist under these circumstances? Will his urban, western influences enable him to portray the true world of an Indian? 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ballad-not-on-noahs-ark-but-on-the-raft-of-the-medusa/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Ballad ~ Not on Noah’s Ark, but on the Raft of the Medusa  Normality is the somewhat misleading name that many of us give to the present. It is often the only means of remaining sane while enduring the abrupt horrors and dehumanising provocations that surround us. The artist, however, is not obliged either to neutralise himself to these horrors and provocations; nor is he afraid of exploring the regimes of consciousness that lie beneath the sanctioned threshold of sanity. 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ballad-in-a-liminal-age/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Ballad ~ In A Liminal Age Ali Akbar Mehta talks candidly with Rahul D'Souza about his first solo exhibition, “Ballad of the War that Never Was and other Bastardised Myths” (unpublished) Rahul D’souza: Tell us about the title of your show “Ballad of the War that Never Was and other Bastardised myths”. What did you envisioned when you came up with the title? **Ali Akbar Mehta: The idea of the title “Ballad of the War that Never Was” actually came from an increasing preoccupation that I have been having with the idea of violence, of how our world is governed by responses that are majorly violent...** 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/ballad-comprehending-violence/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Ballad ~ Comprehending Violence It is amazing how you can know an artist as a friend for well over a decade, but still be surprised to learn aspects of his personality from his works. I’ve been proud to have Ali Akbar Mehta as a friend since 1999. My occasional annoying retreats into absence and isolation aside, his has been the voice that has spoken to me time and again from beyond the veneer of superficial film-informed notions of _dosti_. 2011 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/transforming-myth/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About Transforming Myth 2010 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-what-about-infinity/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ What about Infinity 2010 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-soliloquy-in-four-parts/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Soliloquy in Four Parts 2010 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-finding-icarus-for-tyeb-mehta/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Finding Icarus (For Tyeb Mehta) 2009 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-dream-iii/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Dream III 2009 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-dream-ii/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Dream II 2009 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-diagonal/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Diagonal 2009 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-dream-i/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Dream I 2009 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-excerpts-from-giddh/ 2007-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Excerpts from ‘Giddh’ 2007 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-transition/ 2004-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Transition 2004 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-stillborn/ 2004-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Stillborn 2004 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-images-not-like-words/ 2004-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Images not like words 2004 https://aliakbarmehta.com/content/poems-awakening/ 2004-01-01T00:00:00.000+00:00 daily About poems ~ Awakening 2004